FIFA still refuses to consider technology

One would think that all this technology would make our lives easier, and one would be right. One would also think that it’s only logical that FIFA, who’s by the way promoting its Fair Play slogan anywhere and everywhere, would use technology to make the game truly fair in all scenarios. Unfortunately, that’s where one would be wrong.

A debate sparked by blatant refereeing mistakes is heating up once again with two tried and proven tech-ways being touted as favorites – Hawk Eye and Cairos. Hawk Eye is a set of high-speed cameras that would monitor the ball and report if the ball had crossed the line within 0.5 seconds. Cairos, on the other hand, is a chip that is mounted on the ball – a ball on a chip system, if you will.

It would seem strange that after all this time and all the sports that have successfully implemented technology (tennis, cricket, etc.), FIFA is still insisting on being a dinosaur and doing things the old way. The argument that they constantly use is that human error should be a part of football, yet when one (or three) nation’s hopes crash and burn because the ref had a bad day, one has to seriously rethink all this.

A careful observer will notice that there’s not much talk of video-screen technology, where refs would be allowed to use screens in the stadium to take a closer look at certain situations and make that offside rule fair as well. It’s only natural to expect that this will be debated in 20 years, as the current debate is going for about a decade as it is.

Unfortunately, if all this pesky technology was implemented, that would mean that England’s and Mexico’s fate might’ve been different and that France would’ve never qualified, something which obviously doesn’t sit well with FIFA, not to mention Platini who’s coincidentally French. But, it’s their party and they do what they want to. I bet they all own new iPhones, though.

You can find out more here and here, with the latter one giving some really great food for thought.